1. Field of the Invention
Metallic inserts are often imbedded in any variety of plastic materials in order to afford a means for receiving mating fastener elements. For this purpose cylindrical inserts are often provided with threaded bores such that when the insert is imbedded in a recess formed in the surface of a plastic work piece it will provide a hole or recess therein having metallic internal threads which are adapted to receive mated threads from a complementary male fastener element.
In order to insert such metallic inserts into the various soft materials it is desirable to utilize a thermal press which will heat the metallic insert in order to aid in the imbedding and the gripping of the insert into the soft base material. The base material may be a plastic material or other material softer than the metal of the insert which may include wood, aluminum or any other relatively soft material.
As such the present invention is within the field of those presses which are useful to achieve the two-fold purpose of, firstly, heating a metallic insert prior to insertion and, secondly, performing the act of insertion of a metallic fastener into the surface of soft base material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of thermal presses is well known for the placement of metallic inserts into soft base materials. However, to achieve this desired end the thermal presses utilized heretofore were only particularly useful for individual hand operated insertions. In order to utilize such a thermal press for repeated insertions such as is required in normal assembly jobs, a means must be utilized to closely control the heat in the tip element of the head of the thermal press. There are two main problems which work against one another and no thermal press utilized heretofore has solved each of these problems. The first problem is the accumulation of excessive heat in the tip element which may distort or overly heat the soft base material and as such not achieve a firm inter-connection between the insert and the base material. The second problem working in opposition to the first problem is the lack of generation of sufficient heat in the tip element and the consequential lack of generation of sufficient heat in the insert itself in order to sufficiently displace the base material during the process of insertion.
These problems work in opposition to one another specifically during cyclical operation of the thermal press which is required in assembly line operations. The usual problem is the accumulation of excessive amounts of heat in the tip element and, as such, the inventive concept of utilizing a paraboloidal configuration of heat dissipation fins is a primary aspect of novelty of the present invention.